Thorpe was attracted by the offer of a seat in Cabinet, but met opposition from his own MPs.

Denial

In the event, Harold Wilson's clear victory in the October 1974 election ended any hopes that the Liberals might have a share of power.

Within two years, stories were circulating about Thorpe's relationship with a former male model, Norman Scott.

It was made worse because the relationship was alleged to have started in 1961, when male homosexual acts were illegal.

The story broke when Scott was appearing at a court in Barnstaple on a minor social security charge.

During the hearing, Scott shouted out, "I am being hounded because of my sexual relationship with Jeremy Thorpe." He gave a statement to the police but no action was taken.

Trial

Thorpe issued an immediate denial but when an affectionate letter between them appeared in the press, Thorpe resigned as leader.

But worse was to come. Eighteen months later, a man called Andrew Newton was released from prison.

He had been jailed on charges arising from an incident on Exmoor in which Norman Scott's dog, Rinka, was shot.

He claimed that he had been paid by a leading Liberal supporter to kill Scott because of his blackmail threats but said he had lost his nerve and shot the dog instead.

Image caption
Arriving at the Old Bailey in 1979 with wife Marion

Nine more months of police investigation led to Thorpe and three associates being charged with conspiring to murder Scott.

The 1979 trial was postponed for eight days at Thorpe's request so that he could contest his North Devon seat in the May general election. He was heavily defeated.

The trial attracted reporters from all over the world. It took 20 days for the prosecution to present its case to the jury while defence evidence occupied just a single day.

Amnesty International

On the advice of his barrister, George Carman QC, Thorpe and his co-defendants elected not to go into the witness box.

Eventually, after six weeks, the charges were dismissed. For two years Jeremy Thorpe stayed out of the public eye.

But the affair resurfaced again when one of his co-defendants, David Holmes, a former deputy treasurer of the Liberal Party, wrote a series of articles for the News of the World newspaper.

In the first of them he claimed that Thorpe did incite him to murder Norman Scott. Thorpe's solicitor immediately issued a rebuttal and the director of public prosecutions said there was no question of another trial.

Image caption
At a book signing in 1999

But Thorpe's public life was finished.

Shortly after his acquittal he was offered the post of director general of the British section of Amnesty International.

He had previously been a valuable source of information to the organisation, particularly on the subject of human rights abuses in Ghana.

But there was huge opposition from Amnesty's members and the appointment was never made.

His later years saw the onset of Parkinson's Disease. But he kept in close touch with the Westminster he loved, despite painful memories.

He became the President of the North Devon Liberal Association, later Liberal Democrat Association, and received a standing ovation when he appeared at the 1997 Liberal Democrat conference.

In an interview in 2009 the ailing former politician reflected on the events that had brought him down